A 500-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle.

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God - but then committed suicide without revealing its location.

Three quarters of a century later, best-selling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.

Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal - and incurable - disease.

Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the 21st century.

In this, the twenty-first century, we take for granted that our planet has been thoroughly explored. Douglas Preston has brought us the tale of a hidden civilization that takes a horrendous toll on it’s explorers. It is a journey not to be missed, especially since the reader is not the one suffering the trials and pains the explorers did. Douglas Preston is a well-known author as part of the team, with Lincoln Childs, that writes the Pendergast mystery series. He also has his own books, both fiction and nonfiction that are worth checking out.

The first recorded reference to the White City is in the writing of Cortez. He was told by a guide that there was a civilization that rivaled the Aztecs and Incas located in what is modern-day Honduras. Cortez passed this information on to Spanish authorities but was never able to follow up on it. As the decades went by the legend of the White City persisted. Claims of finding the city were not accompanied by proof. The author does a good job of detailing the tantalizing clues that kept the legend alive.

Preston first heard of the White City while doing a story for National Geographic on Angkor Wat in 1996. He was told about new technology that can penetrate the thick jungle canopy to help determine if man-made structures existed. Preston was fascinated by the story and contacted the researchers to request joining the study. Steve Elkins, heading the project, accepted Preston into the group. After securing the financing, the search for the White City finally began in 2012. The preliminary work of selecting the possible sites, planning the expedition, and gathering a team of experts, not only in archaeology but also in navigating the jungle. The area of Honduras that the White City was believed to be was an isolated valley, uninhabited by man but full of danger like the fer-de-lance snake, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The expedition finally started for the valley where the White City in 2015.

This is where the book becomes addictive. The snakes, the mosquitos, the jungle itself challenged the explorers day and night. The discoveries came quickly. The team had to decide whether to announce their finds and risk it all. Although they had accessed the site by helicopter, they knew once it was announced, others would attempt to rob the site of it’s priceless artifacts. Preston describes all of this, the danger, the hard choices, in detail that keeps the reader turning pages (in my case late into the night). Once the expedition ended, the danger did not. The worst was what many of the exhibition members unknowingly carried home with them. Despite the mosquito nets and liberal use of DEET, many members of the team became ill and had mosquito bites that did not heal. When the team compared bites and symptoms through email, they knew they needed expert medical help. Naively believing malaria was the worst, the team was shocked to find they had contracted leishmaniasis also called White Leprosy. The final discussion of this third world disease and it’s spread to first world countries was fascination and frightening.

The production values of the audiobook are fantastic. There are no issues with either the sound quality or the narrator’s clarity. Bill Mumy did a good job as a narrator. This was my first audiobook narrated by Mr. Mumy. He has a pleasant voice. As Preston is an American, it made sense to have the audiobook narrated by an American. While I did enjoy the audio and Mr. Mumy spoke clearly, I just felt there was something missing. I found myself wondering how it would have sounded narrated by James Foster, R. C. Bray, or Bronson Pinchot. I think Mr. Pinchot would have done an exceptional job as he did with The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.

When I was in middle school, around 1973, I had a book about lost civilizations. It included the Mayan and Angkor Wat to name a few. I was fascinated with the thought that a culture could so completely disappear for hundreds of years. I remember thinking that book I read as a young teen was the last that would be written, that all lost civilizations had been discovered. The Lost City of the Monkey God rekindled all the amazement and wonder I felt many, many years ago reading about other lost cities. This is an amazing audiobook in it’s detailing of the legend itself, the preparation for and the expedition itself as well as the horrifying aftereffects on the team.

About Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston is the author of 35 books, both fiction and nonfiction, sixteen of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with several reaching the number 1 position. Before becoming a writer he worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was managing editor of CURATOR magazine. His first novel, RELIC, co-authored with Lincoln Child, was made into a movie by Paramount Pictures, which launched the famed Pendergast series of novels. His recent nonfiction book, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, is also in production as a film. His latest book, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD, tells the true story of the discovery of a prehistoric city in the Mosquitia mountains of Honduras. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker, National Geographic, and Smithsonian, and he taught writing at Princeton University. He is past president of International Thriller Writers and serves on the board of the Authors Guild. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the US and Europe, including an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Pomona College.

I love books in any form. I especially love audio books and believe a narrator can make or break the book. I enjoy a wide variety of genres. In non-fiction history (whether biography or cultural) is one of my favorites. In fiction, I enjoy everything except romance (although I have read a few I did like). I enjoy sharing what I read with others.